Litany of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe Read Free Book Online

lamb instead, and offered it to all the gods, and the entrails of the gray lamb held the same messages of hope that I had read in the white lambs. Then I should have known, though I did not, that it was not one of the Nine who was speaking to us through the lambs. Today I learned the identity of that god, but I won't tell you that today; there is still too much I have not understood." Silk picked up the Writings and stared at the binding for a moment before he spoke again,
    "This is the manteion's copy. It's the one that I read now, and it's a better one-a better printed copy, with more extensive notes-than my old one, the one I sold so that I might make a gift to all the gods. There are lessons there, and I hope that every one of you will master them. Wrestle with them a while, if they seem too difficult for you at first, and never forget that it was to teach you these wrestlings that our palaestra was founded long ago.
    "Yes, Kit? What is it?"
    "Patera, is a god really going to come."
    Some of the older students laughed. Silk waited until they were quiet again before he replied. "Yes, Kit. A god will come to our Sacred Window, though we may have to wait a very long time. But we need not wait-we have their love and their wisdom here. Open these Writings at any point, Kit, and you'll find a passage applicable to your present condition-to the problems you have today, or to the ones you'll have to deal with tomorrow. How is this possible? Who will tell me?" Silk studied the blank faces before him before calling on one of the girls who had laughed loudest "Answer, Ginger."
    She rose reluctantly, smoothing her skirt. "Because everything's connected to everything else, Patera?" It was one of his own favorite sayings.
    "Don't you know, Ginger?"
    "Because everything's connected."
    Silk shook his head. "That everything in the whorl is dependent on every other thing is unquestionably true. But if that were the answer to my question, we ought to find any passage from any book as appropriate to our condition as one from the Chrasmologic Writings. You need only look into any other book at random to prove that it isn't so. But," he tapped the shabby cover again, "when I open this book, what will we find?"
    He did so, dramatically, and read the line at the top of the page aloud: " 'Are ten birds to be had for a song?' "
    The clarity of this reference to his recent transaction in the market stunned him, afrighting his thoughts like so many birds. He swallowed and continued. " 'You have daubed Oreb the raven, but can you make him sing?'
    "I'll interpret that for you in a moment," he promised. "First I wish to explain to you that the authors of these Writings knew not only the state of the whorl in then-time-and what it had been-but what was yet to come. I'm referring," he paused, his eyes lingering on every face, "to the Plan of Pas. Everyone who understands the Plan of Pas understands the future. Am I making myself plain? The plan of Pas is the future, and to understand it and follow it is the principal duty of every man, and of every woman and each child.
    "Knowing the Plan of Pas, as I said, the Chrasmatists knew what would best serve us each time this book would be opened-what would most firmly set your feet and mine upon the Aureate Path."
    Silk paused again to study the youthful faces before him; there was a flicker of interest here and there, but no more than a flicker. He sighed.
    "Now we return to the lines themselves. The first, 'Are ten birds to be had for a song?' bears three meanings at least. As you grow older and learn to think more deeply, you'll learn that every line of the Writings bears two meanings or more. One of the meanings here applies to me personally. I'll explain that meaning in a moment. The other two have application to all of us, and I'm going to deal with them first.
    "To begin, we must assume that the birds referred to are of the singing kind. Notice that in the next line, when the singing kind isn't intended,